In this world
there are many unusual things that are beyond people's imagination. Although
they are beyond people's imagination, they are partly created by people
themselves, and partly by heaven. If people hadn't contributed to them, these
things would not have happened. If people contribute to them, but it is not the
heavenly destiny, then there will be no basis for these things to happen. And so
everything in the world is relative. If there is wholesomeness, then there will
be evil; if there is yin, there will be yang; if there is a right, then there
will be a wrong. If there is a goodness then there is a bad. With this law of
relativity, if you are capable, you can turn bad into good. If you are not
capable, then good can turn into bad. Those who know how to apply effort, even
if their yin energy is high, they can regulate it so that they have some yang
energy. If their yang energy is too high, they can regulate it so there is some
yin. Yang belongs to movement, and yin belongs to stillness. Yang belongs to
hardness and yin belongs to softness. Being bad or being good is something done
by human beings. And so it is said, "Getting near the rouge, one becomes red.
Getting near the ink, one becomes black. If you dye something green, it becomes
green; if you dye something yellow, it becomes yellow."

An example of
this principle is Mencius, the second sage in China. He lost his father when he
was little and so his mother raised him. At first they lived near a
slaughterhouse where pigs were killed. This child imitated the practice of
slaughtering animals. When his mother saw this, she thought, "I shouldn't let
him develop freely. I shouldn't let him learn to kill pigs and slaughter
animals," and so they quickly moved away. This time they moved next to a
cemetery. Mencius learned how to dig the earth, make graves, and make
sacrifices. The children would place down a bowl of things as an offering to the
ancestors. Seeing people lighting incense or burning paper money, they would do
the same thing. His mother saw this and thought, "This will never do! If he's
allowed to develop freely, then when he grows up he will do these kinds of
things, and how will that help him? We should quickly move! I can't allow this
kind of independence to go on, because 'getting near the rouge, one becomes red.
Getting near the ink, one becomes black.'" Thereupon she moved again. This time
they moved next to a school. At school, the students bowed from the waist to the
Sages when they arrived, and when they were let out of school, they also bowed
from the waist to the Sages. When they returned home, they made obeisance to
their parents. At school they studied well. Mencius came from a poor family.
Although they had no money, he had the capacity to learn.

He imitated
whatever others did. He learned how to study; he learned characters. He learned
the rites and rituals. He learned many things. Watching this, Mencius' mother
thought, "I'm going to stay here this time. This child is learning and becoming
better. I should not allow him to develop just as he pleases." And so they
settled down there. After Mencius studied for some time, he became bored and
quit learning. He was very naughty and mischievous. Mencius' mother was weaving
cloth. When she saw that her son quit studying, she broke the loom and stopped
her work. The cloth she wove was the living for the family. When Mencius saw
that his mother had stopped making cloth and that this would cut off their
family income, he wondered what to do. And so he asked his mother why she broke
the loom, snapped the threads, and stopped weaving. His mother answered, "Your
ceasing to learn is just like the broken thread on the loom, which cannot be
woven anymore." Mencius thought about that. "Oh, my not studying is just like a
loom with snapped threads. This can't go on." After that, he worked hard
studying and eventually became a great sage.

I am not
opposing this country's way of giving children freedom, but if you give children
free reign over their development, that is also a misconception. Because,
children are like young trees with a lot of shoots. If you want the tree to
become useful material, you have to prune its shoots and train the main trunk.
Only in that way can a tree become material for a beam. If a child is correct,
then of course, he can be allowed to develop freely. If the child is not doing
what's right, he should be guided to change a little bit.

For instance, in
this country I have found that many children are left-handed. They write, eat,
and do everything with their left hand. This is not very convenient. The right
hand is associated with gentleness, and the left hand with stubbornness. That is
why being left-handed is not too good. When a child shows tendency to be
left-handed, the family should help the child change to being right-handed while
he/she is still learning to write and eat. Going clockwise is a compliant
movement. Just like when we circumambulate the Buddha, we turn to the right. In
all we do we move clockwise. Being right-handed is a nimble movement, more
convenient both in writing, in eating, and in doing everything else. Thus, I am
making this suggestion to families with left-handed children. Although I'm
making such suggestions, you may still insist in allowing your children to
develop freely. But if in the future, they don't listen to you, it will be a
result of their free development, because they will say, "I want to develop
freely. I won't listen to you. Whatever you say, I won't listen to it." After
they grow up, they will become hippies, or they will do unprincipled things.
From T.V., people can learn to be very bad. If you let your child watch T.V.,
that is also not really allowing him to develop freely! You're letting him be
influenced, too! To really develop freely, what should you do? You should take
him into the deep mountains where there is no telephone and no T.V.--none of
those things--and have him be totally cut off from the world. Then he can
develop freely there, just like the trees in the mountains, completely separated
from the people of the world. That would be the way to let him develop freely,
because there are no people around. When there are no people in a place, even if
he didn't want to develop freely, he would have to develop freely. When we live
in society where there are always people around us, then we should apply our
wisdom, use common sense, and maintain a certain standard of behavior.

I am not against
people who are left-handed. But left-handed people sometimes stand out as a bit
unusual. They often are not too obedient. This is also a result of allowing them
to develop freely. We say that the children of this country are being allowed to
develop freely, but we could do a survey and study in detail how many among
these children, who have been allowed to develop freely, have gone on to become
President? Is it the case that if a child is allowed to develop freely, then he
can become President? If that's the case, then every one of them should become
President. If that is not the case, then we should guide him a little. Rendering
him a little help means if he is right, you will let him grow liberally. If he
is not right, you must tell him not to be like that.